


Requiem Aeternam

by FaerieChild



Category: Outlander & Related Fandoms, Outlander (TV), Outlander Series - Diana Gabaldon
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-07
Updated: 2018-12-07
Packaged: 2019-09-13 17:37:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16897020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FaerieChild/pseuds/FaerieChild
Summary: John and William visit Faith's grave.





	Requiem Aeternam

**Author's Note:**

> I thought it might be nice to have a scene with John and William visiting Faith’s grave. The issue of Faith’s death is an issue that touches different people in different ways. We think, so often, of a parents loss. But sometimes even those of use who didn’t know the one who has gone are reminded of the absence of someone who would have otherwise been in our lives. That thought inspired this story.

John knew that his wife would likely not be happy, nor could he explain to William why he was here but his wife had longed to see Paris and it seemed wrong not to come while he was here.  
  
  
The small courtyard, the single headstone with the engraved name and a silver spoon – corroded now into a dark black colour that no longer reflected the light.  
  
  
With Jamie back in Scotland, the man need never know.  
  
  
He called forwards the small boy, who looked so like his father, and laid a single white rose on the grave.  
  
  
“There, William. Get out your rosary.”  
  
  
“Why?”  
  
  
“We need a papist prayer,” John said with great kindness. The bittersweet knowledge that William could never know the truth. Perhaps when he was grown, John would explain it to him. “To help the soul to heaven, I believe.”  
  
  
William’s face contorted in confusion, as only children’s faces could. “Why? Whose grave is it?”  
  
  
“Faith Fraser is Mackenzie’s daughter,” John said. “He told you once, I think.”  
  
  
“But she doesn’t have his name.”  
  
  
“I know.”  
  
  
William remembered Mac telling him about his family, about saying prayers for them. Remembered Mackenzie apologising for calling him a bastard. Maybe this was why. He was still angry at Mac for going. But William thought of how disappointed Mac would be in him for not doing the right thing. And his new Stepfather too. He weighed things up in his mind.  
  
  
“Alright,” William sighed. “But we have to say it in Latin. And we have to pray to Saint Anthony after. He’s he patron saint of lost things, you know. If Faith Fraser is lost I’m sure he’ll help. Mac prayed to him all the time.”  
  
  
And so for Jamie – and for his dear departed wife – John as a lifelong Englishman and Anglican kneeled in a dirty French courtyard with the richest man in England, and recited a Catholic prayer.  
  
  
 _“Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei. Requiescat in pace. Amen.”_


End file.
